Reliving Christmas past

Handout

Handout

Jay Jones, Special to Tribune Newspapers

PARADISE, Pa. — On the day after Thanksgiving, the day on which millions of Americans turned their attention to shopping for bargains, a large family from Virginia decided to kick off the holiday season in a different way, with a trip back to an earlier, more innocent holiday time.

Their Black Friday began early in the morning, as 54 family members boarded a bus they had chartered for a three-hour ride to Paradise, in Amish country just outside Lancaster. That's the location of one of America's most unique museums: the National Christmas Center, where the youthful expectation and magic of the season are palpable.

Pulling into the parking lot, visitors are greeted by an unremarkable entrance and a modest sign that reads, simply, "We're more than you expect."

That's like buying your spouse a new BMW for Christmas and casually remarking, "I just got you a little something." The museum is a magical place that, through much of the year, pays tribute to Christmas in both its religious and more contemporary, secular forms.

"People think it's a store. They have no idea what's inside," noted Jim Morrison, the museum's founder and curator.

In large part, the place is a public repository for Morrison's bounty of Christmas collectibles, which he began amassing at age 7. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1946, Morrison started his collection while on a trip to Philadelphia, about an hour east of where the museum is now, to see the decorated windows of the downtown department stores. In the Woolworth's store, he used the quarter his mother had given him to buy three small cardboard houses, similar to the ones that hung on his aunt's Christmas tree.

Those miniatures, along with hundreds of other items, are now on display in the museum's first gallery, a replica of an F.W. Woolworth store at Christmastime. (Coincidentally, Woolworth's first store was in nearby Lancaster.) The cardboard buildings, toy cars and ornamental wreaths add up to just a fraction of the items Morrison has purchased — or been given — over nearly seven decades.

"I had a four-bedroom house in Maryland, and it was filled with just boxes and boxes (of collectibles). I ended up sleeping on the sofa," he said. "It's an addiction."

Since the museum opened in 1998, Morrison has had to expand several times to showcase his ever-growing collection. Among his prized possessions are the holiday displays that once graced the windows of department stores in Columbus and Chicago.

Tudor Towne, created for the Lazarus department store in Columbus, Ohio, is of particular appeal to young children. Its colorful, animated creatures — from a banjo-picking goat to a quilting bear — share a whimsical holiday tale.

But possibly closest to the museum owner's heart is a priceless nativity scene that drew visitors by the thousands to the windows of the Marshall Field's department store in downtown Chicago more than 90 years ago.

"It was carved in northern Italy, where they had very fine wood carvers. They bought this nativity at the end of the First World War," Morrison explained. "It was shown for a few years, and then it was stored."

After decades of gathering dust in Chicago and later at a Minneapolis warehouse when Target was the parent company of Field's, corporate bosses in Minnesota donated the entire exhibit — from the baby Jesus to the wise men and the livestock, all nearly life-size — to Morrison's museum.

The realistic figures form the centerpiece of "O Holy Night," a collection of roughly 300 unique creches. Upon leaving that exhibit, visitors enter one called "The First Christmas," which shares the story of Mary and Joseph's arduous journey to Bethlehem. There's even a recounting of the birth of Christ read in Aramaic, the ancient language spoken by Jesus.

"The place touches people. I've had people come out in tears and say to me, 'I feel like I've walked with Mary and Joseph,'" Morrison recalled. "We're telling the story of a humble birth."

Along the way, guests also experience Christmas as it's celebrated around the world. They learn, for example, that Russian children are visited not by Santa Claus but by Grandfather Frost. In Sweden, the visage is that of the "Queen of Light," St. Lucia.

At the museum's core, however, is Morrison's childhood. The first exhibit visitors eye upon entering is "Christmas Memories of the 1950s." Amid other presents, a shiny new boy's bicycle sits in front of an old-fashioned tree. Nearby, a mannequin of a woman in pajamas and a robe warms herself by the fire while a nearby television set shows the classic "Miracle on 34th Street."

"I remember when I got my bike with a big red bow on it," he said. "It's about the memories, taking them back to rooms that are now empty and people who are now gone. ... It's pretty incredible to bring those memories alive again."

The National Christmas Center (717-442-7950, nationalchristmascenter.com) is at 3427 Lincoln Highway (U.S. Highway 30) in Paradise, Pa. Admission is $12 for adults and $5 for children ages 3-12.The museum is open Saturdays and Sundays in March and April, then daily May 1 through Jan. 6. It is, of course, closed on Christmas Day.